Spring suspension for lightweight vehicle



1959 .1. R. FURRER 2,908,233

SPRING SUSPENSION FOR LIGHTWEIGHT VEHICLE Original Filed Nov. 22, 1952 3 Sheets-Sheet 1 ATTOFi NEY Oct. 13, 1959 .1. R. FURRER SPRING SUSPENSION FOR LIGHTWEIGHT VEHICLE 3 Sheets-Sheet 2 Original Filed Nov. 22, 1952 INVENTOR J OHN R FURRER WXM ATTO R NEY Cart. 13, 1959 J. R. FURRER 2,

SPRING SUSPENSION FOR LIGHTWEIGHT VEHICLE Original Filed Nov. 22, 1952 s Sheets-Sheet s INVEIy'rOR JOHN R FURRER BY Wan-M ATTORNEY United States Patent SPRING SUSPENSION FOR LIGHTWEIGHT V VEHICLE John R. Furrer, Bronxville, N.Y., assignor to ACF Industries Incorporated, a corporation of New Jersey 8 Claims. (Cl. 105-453) This invention relates to railway cars and consists particularly in means for guiding the wheels of long wheel-base, four-wheeled trail cars and for controlling the car movement and is a division of application filed November 22, 1952, Serial No. 322,125; now Patent 2,834,303, granted May 13, 1958. a

-Conventional railway passengercars range in length up to 85 feet, and, in order to operate on curved track, are pivotally mounted at each end on a fouror six-wheel sprung and equalized truck. Such cars are, to a large extent, independent, self-sufficient units, containing their own power generating, air-conditioning, and sanitary facilities, and relying upon external means only for traction and heating. They are equipped with automatic couplers and other connections which enable them to be easily connected to any other standard railway car. The characteristics enumerated above obviously make possible highly flexible train arrangements, both as to the number of cars in a train and as to the various types of cars. composing a train. They also clearly facilitate the addition to or removal of cars from trains. Ari important disadvantage of such cars is that they cannot be operated safely at extremely high speed on curved trackage, due to thedangenof derailment, which makes mandatory substantial speed restrictions on curved trackage. When cars of: this type begin to round a curve, the trucks are guided by the engagement of the inner edge of the outer rail and Patented Oct. 13, 1959 cars to or remove cars from the train. A further serious disadvantage of this type of negative angle, twowheeled unit, articulated train is the fact that they can be operated. in only one direction, operation in the opposite direction resulting in the wheels attacking the outer rails on curves at a positive angle, with consequent decrease in derailment safety.

- Accordingly, it is an object of this invention to provide a railway car having the numerous advantages of the conventional double-truck car, listed above, combined with the high degree of anti-derailment safety found in articulated trains of the type mentioned above.

A further object of this invention is to provide a reversible railway car having a derailment. safety factor equivalent to that of the negative angle equipment referred to above. A further object is to provide a draft arrangement Which will permit accurate coupler actuation of the wheel guiding'arrangement, and will at the same time comply with draft gear requirements of the Association of American Railroads.

An additional object is to provide coupler actuated means for constantly maintaining the wheels of a fourwheel trail car at a zero angle with the rails, regardless of whether the car occupies an intermediate or rearmost position in the train.

' Another object is to provide means for automatically banking the car body on curves directly in proportion-to the radius of curvature.

Still another object is to provide means for stabilizing the independently guided axles so as to prevent their tendency to hunt under certain conditions.

the flanges of the outer wheels, and the outer front against the rail to the vertical weight applied to the wheel over'the rail. The Lafiite Theory shows, among other things, that greater safety against derailment can be achieved by arranging the Wheels so that they will attack the rail at a zero angle or a negative angle, a negative an-' gle ofattack being the angle between the wheel and the railrwhen the trailing edge of the wheelflange is in contact with'the rail.

'YTd *provide increased safety against derailment, articulated trains, consisting of a plurality of very short two-wheeled trailers provided with fixed transverse axles, have been built, and, in uni-directional operation, provide the desired negative angle of attack. Because of their short unit length and articulation, two-wheeled units of thistype are highly interdependent, with each coach unit T-he articulation of the train, as well as the interdependence of the units, makes it very diflicult to add These and other more detailed objects of the invention will be apparent to those skilled in the art from a study of the following description and accompanying drawings, in which:

Fig. 1 is a schematic plan view of my wheel guiding system and suspension arrangement;

Fig. 2 is a schematic plan view of a modified form of wheel guiding system; I v Fig. 3 is a schematic plan view showing the action of the wheel guiding system and suspension arrangement of Fig. 1 on curved trackage;

Fig. 4 is a plan view showing the mechanical details of one of the identical ends of a car underbody incorporating my invention;

Fig. 5 is an elevational View illustrating the structure I shown in Fig. 4, and

Fig. 6 is an end view of the structure and 5.

Referring now to the drawings, the letter U indicates a railway car body underframe portion suspended at each end from a rigid axle structure 10, each of which has a flanged wheel 11 rotatably mounted at each end. Brackets 12 are journaled on each end of each of the axle structures. Yokes 13 of spring telescopic strut memshown in Figs. 4

Y bers 14 are pivotally secured at 1'5 to-brackets 12 to permit limited rotation of the struts in the transverse vertical plane of the car. The car underframe U includes a pair of laterally extending body bolster members 16, one of which is adjacent each end of the car. The upper end of each of the strut members is pivotally secured by pin 16a to a clevis 17, which, in turn, is pivotally secured at 17a to the adjacent body bolster 16, so that each strut can pivot both transversely and longitudinally with respect to the underframe. In other words each strut is pivotally connected to the bolster with two degrees of freedom. Simultaneous and opposite longitudinal motion of the two struts of an axle causes the axle to turn in a horizontal plane relative to the car body, thus providing dirigibility of the axle. Strut members 14 are slightly inclined inwardly toward the center of,

the car and toward the adjacent end of the car in order to achieve a banking effect on curves and to stabilize the axle in a manner to be described later. In other words as the' axle turns in thehorizontal plane the strut 14 on the outer side of the curve becomes more nearly perpendicular to the body as viewed in Fig. 5 and the strut 14 on the inner side of-the curve increases its inclinaaxle is resiliently centered with respect to the car framing by means of a pair of spring cylinders 18, pivotally secured at their outer ends to the axle structure and at their inner ends to bracket -19 fixed to underframe U. Centering devices 18 merely restrict lateral relative motion between the car body and the axle structure and do not interfere with rotation of the axle structure in the transverse plane with respect to the car body.

Guiding of the axle structure is achieved by a system of coupler-actuated linkages. The horizontal position of each axle structure is regulated by a pair of longitudinally extending radius rods 20, each of which is pivotally connected to the axle structure at one end through a resilient connection 21 of the so-called Harris bushing type and at the other end to a pair of swingers 22 which are pivotally suspended from the car underf-raming adjacent each corner of the car. Each pair of swingers is provided with a transversely extending pin 22a Onwhich are pivotally mounted the ends of radius rods 20, the opening in the radius rods through which the pins pass being provided with rubber bushings to permit limited lateral, as well as vertical, rotation of the radius rods with respect to pins 22a. Radius rods are hung from swingers in order that they may be separately longitudinally displaced in opposite directions thereby to cause rotation of the axle structure 10 in a horizontal plane about its center in accordance with changes in track curvature. Actuation of the radius rods is accomplished through swingers 22, which, in turn, are actuated by movements of the coupler about a pivot pin 23 depending from the car underframe.

The coupler-actuating means shown is part of a draft means comprising a standard AAR type tightlock coupler head 24 formed with a hollow shank 25' for slidable mounting on tongue 26. 'It is to be understood that any suitable tightlock coupler may be used. Tongue 26 is mounted at its inner end about a transverse horizontal pivot on laterally and downwardly extending yoke-shaped member 28,which in turn is pivoted at the center of its bight portion 28A from the body underframing by means of vertical pivot pin 23, so that the entire assembly pivots freely about pin 23. The ends 2813 of yoke 28' are displaced from pivot pin 23 laterally of the car body and are pivotally connected to longitudinally extending links 30 which are connected at their opposite ends to pins 22a of swingers 22, so that as the coupler is deflected from its central position parallel to the longitudinal axis of the car body by means of the coupler on an adjacent car, one of the leading pairs of swingers 22 will be moving forwardly relative to the car body, and the other r'earwardly, thereby resulting in a similar movement of the axle structure 210. For example, as the train rounds a left-hand curve, coupler 24 will be directed-to the left to an angular extent which is a function of the radius of curvature of the track being transversed, thereby similarly rotating yoke-shaped member 28 and thus moving the right-hand swingers 2'2 forward and theleft-hand swingers 2/2rearward, with consequent similar forward and rearward movements of the right and left-hand ends of the axle structure. The arrangement and proportions of the structure are such that, regardless of the radius of curvature, the axle '10 will always be maintained substantially collinear with the radius of the track curve, and

the longitudinal vertical plane of the wheels substantiallytangential to the vertical-edge of the rails. Inasmuch as the accurate functioning of points 23 be'immovable with respect to the car body, it .is evident that the mounting of the pivot pins must be rigidly secured to the car underframing, ,without the interposition of draft gear therebetween as is customary with conventional standard radial couplers. I -Furth'er, it is evident that incorporating the draft gear in a pivoted draw bar, as is conventionally done in radial coupler applications on equipment designed for extremely short radius track curves would not meet the requirements that 'the draft gear, act as a device forfspreading the coupler shocks over a relatively broad ,area of heavy structural body members. To' efifect substantial; compliance with the above indicated requirements, and at the same time to permit substantial rotation of the coupler,

I provide a novel draft gear arrangement constituting the remainder of the draft means, of which the portion constituting the axle guiding means has already been described. It consists of a transversely extending coupler carrier 32 firmly mounted on the hollow shank 25 and having a central opening to permit relative vertical movements, only, of the coupler therein, and is provided at each end with pivots 29 to receive the outer end of draft links 33. Radially directed draft gear housings 35 are rigidly secured to similarly directed underframe members 36. Draft gear housings 35 include forward'and rear draft lugs 38 and 39 respectively, and provide amounting for followers 40, conventional draft gear 41, andswivel type yoke 43. Draft links 33 are pivotally secured to the end of yokes 43, so that all draft and buff shocks will be transmitted from the coupler through carrier 32 and links 33 into the draft gear where they will be absorbed while the shank 25 and tongue 26 jointlyconstitute a telescopic, longitudinally extending portion of the coupler which yields freely to draft and buff forces and transmits to yoke 28 only the direction and extent of the angular deviation of the coupler from the longi tudinal axis of the car. Rotation of the coupler about pivot 23 will be permitted by the pivotal arrangement of the carrier, links 33, and the draft yoke, compressibility of the draft gear itself. My draft arrangement serves the further purpose of providing an automatic means for centering the coupler at all times.

The device, to the extent described above, provides meansfor guiding the axle adjacent the coupled end of a car. However, in order that cars of this type'be usable in any position in the train, including the rear end, it is essential'that means he provided for guiding the uncoupled end of a car of this type. Thepreferred' means to this end 'is best illustrated in Figs. 1, 3 and 4. It consists of a pair of reversing linkages connecting the swinger pins 22a at one end of the car with the swinger pins on the same side at the other end, so thatiwhen the swingers and adjacent axle end are moved outwardly at one end'of'the'car, the corresponding swingers and axle end at .the other end of. the ear will be moved outwardly a similar. distance and likewise the swingers and axle endsadjacent'the inside of the track curve will be moved inwardly toward the center of the carQequal distances, as best shown in Fig. 3.- Each of the reversing linkages, referred to above, consists of a pairofldngitudinally extending links 45, each connected at one end to swinger pin 22a and at their other end to respectively opposite ends of small class 1 levers 46 fulcru'med from the car underframing at 48. i

Operation of the axle guiding arrangement is best shown in Fig. 3, in which the numeral 50 indiciatesil the system "described above requires that the position ofthe pivot and by the 5. portion of curved trackage, the radius of curvature being substantially less than in actual steam railroad practice,

in order to more clearly demonstrate operation of the axle. guiding system. It will be noted that the draw bars of the connected cars, being equipped with tightlock couplers, form a rigid link between the pivot points 23 of the adjacent. cars, so that at all times the movement of the coupler from its dead center position is a function of the radius of curvature. In Fig. 3, assuming the train to. be moving from left to right, in the direction of the arrow, it will be noted that coupler actuated member'28 Qnthe front of the car directs the outside end of front axle toward the front of the car and the inside end of axle 10 away from the front end of the car. As will be noted the reversing linkages 45-48 cause the outside end of the rear axle to be moved rearwardly and the inside end of the rear axle to be moved forwardly, so that all four wheels remain at all times tangent to the track rails.

As has been indicated above, the transverse inclination of the strut members 14 from the lower pivot is toward the center of the car, and the longitudinal inclination is toward the adjacent end of the car; that is, toward the end of the radius rods pivotally secured to the swinger. The longitudinal inclination serves to stabilize the axle by maintaining the radius rods in tension, and to achieve automatic banking on curves.

It has been found that when radius rods are used to connect axles to vehicle bodies, the axles are stable when the radius rods are in tension, and unstable-that is, they tend to hunt-when the radius rods are in compression. The degree of upward and endwise inclination of the struts 14 is such that the horizontal component of the force being applied through them is sufficient to keep the radius rods in tension under all normal operating conditions.

The desired banking eflfect is achieved as follows: When the car rounds a curve, as shown in Fig. 3, and also in Fig. 5, the distance between outside wheels is lengthened, that is the axle ends move toward the end of the car, while the distance between the inside wheels is shortened, that is the axle ends move away from the end of the car, so that the outside struts straighten up to be more nearly perpendicularto the body, thereby raising the outside of the car, while the inside struts become more inclined with respect to the body, thereby lowering the inside of the car. Since the inclination of the struts is directly proportional to the guided positions of the axle, the banking eifect is a function of the radius of track curvature. The banking effect achieved by the longitudinal inclination of the struts is augmented by transversely inclining the struts toward the center of the car, as shown. However, unless it is desired that the banking effect he thus augmented, the struts may be placed vertically, or inclined outwardly as viewed from the end of the car.

Another slightly difierent modification of the axle guiding arrangement is shown in Fig. 2, in which a pair of crossed links 51 are substituted for the reversing linkages 45-48. Operation of the device shown in Fig. 2 is substantially the same as that of the device of Figs.

.1 and 3-6.

Although the arrangement illustrated and described shows a standard coupler mounted at standard coupler height, with consequent elevation of the end portion of the car underframe, it is to be understood that the invention is equally applicable to cars having a low floor throughout with a proportionately low coupler height.

The invention may be modified as will occur to those skilled in the art, and the exclusive use of all modifications as come within the scope of the appended claims is contemplated.

I claim:

1. In a railway car havingan underframe, a pair of longitudinally spaced axle structures, wheels mounted on each end of said axle structures, resilient strut members suspending said underframe from each end of each of said axle structures, said .strutmembers each being longitudinally inclined upwardly toward the'adjacent end of the car, and means for guidingthe axles in accordance with track curvature whereby the inclination of the outside strut members may be decreased and that of the inside strut members increased so as to achieve a banking effect on curves. 1

2. In a railway car having an underframe, a pair of longitudinally spaced axle structures, wheels mounted on each end of each of said axle structures, resilient strut memberssuspending said underframe from each end of each of said axle structures, longitudinally extending radius rods each connected at one end to an end portion of each of said axle structures and at the other end to the car underframe, said strut members being upwardly in-' clined from said axle ends in the same direction as said radius rods whereby to maintain said radius rods in tension at all times.

3. In a railway car having an underframe, a pair of longitudinally spaced axle structures, a pair of wheels mounted on each of said axle structures, a pair of resilient strut members suspending said underframe from each of said axle structures, means for guiding said axles accord ing to track curvature including longitudinally extending radius rods each connected at one end to an end portion of each of said axle structures and at the other end to said underframe intermediate said axle and the adjacent end of said underframe, said strut members being longitudinally inclined upwardly from said axle ends toward the adjacent end of the underframe whereby to maintain the radius rods in tension at all times and to bank the said strut members being longitudinally inclined upwardly from the adjacent axle toward the adjacent end of the car, means pivotally connecting each strut to the adjacent axle end and to the body underframe above the plane of the axles, and additional means connected to the axles and to the body underframe between the adjacent axle and underframe end.

5. In a railway car, the combination of a body underframe, an axle adjacent each end of the underframe, wheels supporting the axles, strut members adjacent each end of each axle and supporting the body on the axles, said strut members being longitudinally inclined upwardly from the adjacent axle toward the adjacent end of the car, pivot means connecting the lower end of each strut to the adjacent axle end outwardly of the supporting wheel, additional pivot means connecting the upper end of each strut to the body underframe with two degrees of freedom, and longitudinally extending members connected to theaxles and to the body underframe adjacent the end of the underframe.

6. In a railway car, the combination of a body underframe, an axle adjacent each end of the underframe, wheels supporting the axles, strut members adjacent each end of each axle and supporting the body on the axles, said strut members being longitudinally inclined upwardly from the adjacent axle toward the adjacent end of the car, said struts being additionally inclined upwardly from the adjacent axle toward the interior of the car, and means pivotally connecting each strut to the adjacent axle end and to the body underfrarne above the plane of the axles.

7. In a railway car, the combination of a body underframe, a dirigibly mounted axle adjacent each end of the underframe, wheels supporting the axles, strut members adjacent each end of each dirigibly mounted axle and supporting the body on the axles, said strut members being longitudinally inclined upwardly from the adjacent axle toward the adjacent end of the car, means pivotally 7 connecting each strut to the adjacent axle ahd-the body unde'rframe above the plane of the axles, and additional means connected to the axles and to the body underf'rame between the adjacent axle and underfrarne end to'contr'ol the dirigible movement of the axles.

8. In a railway car, the combination of a body underframe, a dirigibly mounted' aXleadj-acent eachend of the underframe, wheels supporting the axles, strut members adjacent each end of each di'rigibly mounted axle and supporting the body on the axles, said strut members being longitudinally inclined upwardly from the adjacent axle toward the adjacent end of the car, means pivotally con necting each strut to the adjacent axle and the body under:

8 A frame above the plane-of the axles,- and s't'rifijg fiiealhs e'ojnnectd to the axles and-t6 the body-finder "e' be; tween the adjacent axle and underframe eiid t steer'fli di'rigihly mounted axles iin accordance with 't-r acli cury a ture. r y I V W References Cited in the file of this patent I v 1 UNITED STATES PATENTS 2,648,536; Udstad Aug. 11, 1253 2,746,399 Tomas May 2 2, 19 5 6 2,782,729 Heredia -5. F e l 2 6, 19,57

Furrer Mar. 1 9', 1957 

